I think most of us struggle with closures. I know I do. I'll have this great idea for a focal, but then what kind of a chain, or bead pattern do I use? And then, ugh ... I'm not exactly sure how I should do the closure. Will it lay flat? Will it fit nicely around the wrist? Will it seem out of place with the rest of the pattern, or worse, overwhelm the rest of the piece?
This little zig, zag closure (left) is my latest creation. I wanted something simple, but that would keep the beaded band close together. Leaving it with a feel of continuous pattern around the wrist. This worked perfectly. I simply doubled up the ladder stitch on the back side so it created a loop for the closure to slide through. You can un-hook it on either side.
If you're looking for simplicity try these little flat hook closures (right) I used on my Sultan bracelet. Most of the time I use them with wire wraps at the end, but you can easily use them with bead weaving. My most recent addition to closure options are these fiber end caps.They have a hole on the top of the cap to slip a wire through. I wrapped the sari silk at the end and thread the wire through, then pulled through the end cap to create a wire loop.
When I'm bead weaving, my number one, go to closure is a button. I have a large jar of buttons that I love to dig through to find just the right pattern for my piece. For this brick and ladder bracelet I added a pewter button and then did a simple peyote loop (left).
Sometimes my piece is too wide, or complicated for a simple 'button-loop' closure. I need to narrow down the pattern a bit before I add the closure. For this wide peyote band I used a ladder stitch with alternating lengths to match up the peyote. From there I switched over to brick to narrow down the width. Then added my button and loop closure (right).
One last example of a button-loop closure is this final bracelet. It is a bit of a tease for tomorrow when I will reveal the full pictures of the piece. But for now, I thought I'd show you the closure. I wanted to use this gorgeous wood & shell button. But it is big, very big. In fact you could opt to wear it backwards using the button as the focal. This bracelet is a soft, loose weave which I finished with an extended string-ladder stitch closure. I did use a brick stitch behind the button to give it a bit of a backing and stability. Come back tomorrow for the final reveals of both my last two pieces and to see what everyone else has created for the hop.
This is part of a beadweaving series that I'm running this week for the upcoming A Time to Stitch Challenge by Christine of One Kiss Creations & Therese of Therese's Treasures. The Blog Hop reveal is tomorrow, Wednesday May 15.
I think this might be my favorite piece from my bead weaving extravaganza. The Sultan (as I've taken to calling this bracelet) has got some flare of it's own!
When I was making the Cellini spiral I could see that it was going to be a pretty generous tube shape, and it just seemed to be calling out for something to be pulled through it. Then I remembered the sari silk that Christine so generously shared with me. I am really loving this sari silk from Darn Good Yarn. And, I knew the silk was going to be perfect to try these new end caps, which did prove to be very easy to use. Just hook a little wire for wrapping at the end and pull through the top of the cap. Easy peasy.
The thing is, that as I looked at the bracelet I knew I wasn't yet finished with this design. The silk was taking me some place else, and I went in search of inspiration. I had a little bit of fun with mood boards, one from a Turkish wedding, the other Indian. Either could work. So to complete the look I had in mind I needed a little bling ... Sultan style. I found these metal sequins, yes folks I said sequins. I know how much I swore and yelled at the sequins for the Sequintastic challenge last year. But I'm embracing my inner bling; especially these metal ones that give just a little jingle when you wear it. I bought extra, so these fun little sequins will be showing up again.
This is part of a beadweaving series that I'm running this week for the upcoming A Time to Stitch Challenge by Christine of One Kiss Creations & Therese of Therese's Treasures. The Blog Hop reveal is next Wednesday, May 15.
What is it about the Harlequin pattern that draws me right in? Christine had a few pieces with her the last time we met up. She wanted to show me some examples for our little tutorial, and I was immediately sucked in drawn to the this wonderful pattern she created. I couldn't help myself, and I had to try it!
I'm not much for clowns generally, but something about a Harlequin evokes a timeless, court character to me. The oldest Harlequins date back to the 15th century and were known for their agility. Their performance was full of acrobatics. I find Cirque du Soleil to have similar qualities. But maybe that's just me. I do love to see their show, and my favorite part is always the acrobatics in the show.
But I digress. Making jewelry does that to me. It has a way of transcending me to another place and time. So for my practice piece with Christine's pattern I chose dark colors as I like the richness of it. The base is ladder straight through the middle with brick creating the diamonds, and a small tear drop bead to complete the pattern. I love this one! The bracelet slips on easily and wears so comfortably. Thanks Christine!
This is part of a beadweaving series that I'm running this week for the upcoming A Time to Stitch Challenge by Christine of One Kiss Creations & Therese of Therese's Treasures. The Blog Hop reveal is next Wednesday, May 15.
I think ladder has officially become my 'go to' stitch. Who knew? I have tried to do ladder stitch in the past, so many times with zero luck in getting it to look right. But this time it stuck. I get it!
I really wanted to try a stacked ladder with larger seed beads to get some width to the band. I also wanted fringe on the sides, so I started with a little picot edging. This gave me the base I was looking for, and so I moved on to the fringe! I added wire wrapped large grey freshwater pearls looped through the small seed beads at the tip of the fringe, and alternated with small hematite rounds. I've never wire wrapped through beads like this before but it seemed to really work. It isn't stiff, and the beads have plenty of room to move around.
This bracelet has a luxurious feel to it, and the sound pearls make when strands glide over one another. This pattern will be a 'keeper' in my repertoire.
This is part of a beadweaving series that I'm running this week for the upcoming A Time to Stitch Challenge by Christine of One Kiss Creations & Therese of Therese's Treasures. The Blog Hop reveal is next Wednesday, May 15.
Several weeks ago I showed you a bracelet that was on my bead table (below). At the time it was not quite finished, but I wanted to make sure to come back and post it once I was done.
With this one, I was practicing a new pattern that Christine showed me that she calls "Something Fine." This is her pattern, and she named it after the Jackson Brown song because it reminds her of sheet music. You can see the darker green rounds do look like notes on sheet music!
It is such a sweet, delicate pattern with ladder bands in between simple stringing. I loved the pattern right away and wanted her to show me. This bracelet gave me my first successful piece with ladder stitch, and I've been using it non-stop ever since!
This is part of a beadweaving series that I'm running this week for the upcoming A Time to Stitch Challenge by Christine of One Kiss Creations & Therese of Therese's Treasures. The Blog Hop reveal is next Wednesday, May 15.
I love this lampwork bead that Christine found on our last excursion to a local area bead show. My friend is just drawn to the lampwork tables like a moth to a flame! She will oogle over the beads for sometime ... to the point where I start to wonder what beautiful patterns are dancing around in her mind as she goes from one gorgeous bead to the next.
Lucky for me, she gifted me one of her lampwork beauties! And this one didn't sit on the bead table long. I went right to work on a pattern. Yesterday you saw the bead table tease with a Russian spiral rope using small coral rounds. I wanted to use the coral rounds to echo the red in the lampwork. But I didn't want to connect the lampwork to the beading because I thought it might look too 'chunky' ... I wanted to elongate it and have some fun with the pops of red in the pattern. I also used repeated oval shapes between the silver pieces, the coral and the lampwork focal. It is a fun, playful necklace. Thanks Christine!
This is part of a beadweaving series that I'm running this week for the upcoming A Time to Stitch Challenge by Christine of One Kiss Creations & Therese of Therese's Treasures. The Blog Hop reveal is next Wednesday, May 15.
The Time to Stitch challenge 3 is going to be dominating my blog for the next week, just to warn you! I have been practicing like a crazy person, and now it is time to start revealing some of the work.
I'm going to start with the bead table: and that means spirals. The first spiral I learned was a Russian Spiral, which has become my go-to pattern when thinking about spirals. The one here is using coral rounds. You can see I'm mid-pattern, and you'll have to come back tomorrow for the reveal of this one.
The second one is a Cellini Spiral. A stitch that has stopped me in my tracks historically. But I was determined to figure this baby out. I pulled out every bead pattern book I own and worked on this stitch with all of them (and I mean all of them) open as I attempted to figure this one out. Then I decided I was just going to have to break down and watch a YouTube video on the matter. I started it, then stopped it. Then started again, and back up the video. Then ripped out the pattern and started again. After 3 hours of this, most of my family had had enough of this wacky lady listening to a repeating video on beading ... that they all headed to bed. It was slow going, but by midnight I had finally figured it out. I know I need practice, but this is a big jump in my learning curve. Stop by next week to see the reveal on my Cellini Spiral.
This is the kick off to my beadweaving series that I'm running this week for the upcoming A Time to Stitch Challenge by Christine of One Kiss Creations & Therese of Therese's Treasures. The Blog Hop reveal is next Wednesday, May 15.
I really wanted to try them all as they are ones that I've had trouble with in the past. Lucky for me, Christine and I had planned to meet up and she so nicely agreed to give me a live tutorial on both flat stitches. I've been practicing for several weeks now, and I feel like these are now comfortably in my stable of bead weaving options. If you've been stopping by my blog in the last week you'll have seen all of these stitches in the pieces I've been posting.
One thing I wanted to try was a beaded bead. I decided to give it a try with Russian spiral. This Native American inspired necklace uses 4 Russian spiral beaded beads. I also used some custom cut wood feathers that my friend Edi made for me. They just seemed to fit this pattern using a large wood focal, wood round beads and a wood button closure. I have had so much fun with this wood focal that Christine gifted me. This is the second of 2 pieces that I have made, and there is a third! It's in progress, so I hope to post that within the next few weeks. 
Yesterday I showed you some of the closures from all the bracelets I've been working on. This last piece is the one I showed yesterday with the large wood and shell button. The stitch is ladder with a picot fringe. I also used some polymer clay shells I got from pjBeads. I just love her beads! I wanted this bracelet to have a soft weave to it with a tone on tone color. The bracelet has a relax feel around the wrist. So that's it for my week-long bead weaving extravaganza! And now it's time to see what everyone else created for Therese and Christine's hop.
